Videogame makers might finally be able to breathe easier thanks to the intervention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Thursday, the FBI allied itself with various US entertainment companies to stop the reported billions of dollars lost to piracy. Now, all forms of digital media including DVDs, CDs, and videogames will carry the FBI piracy warning. The warning will be marked by the FBI seal and will read, "The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000."

This new initiative was approved by various Hollywood, music, and videogame trade groups including the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America, the Entertainment Software Association, and the Software and Information Industry Association.

The entertainment industry hopes that this new campaign will spread the word that piracy is illegal. Individual companies will have to decide how exactly to employ the FBI warning -- whether to print it directly on the disc label or present it in digital format similar to the movie industry.

Full Article:
http://cube.ign.com/articles/493/493700p1.html

There will NEVER be one of these things on any Electric Gypsy product.

Shmoo, of Electric Gypsy
Support Local and Independent Music that is FREE of the RIAA's FBI spook stickers.

homemademusic.com

You know I don't have any problem with this.

Provided they do one thing...

Change the length of copyrights to be the same as patents. 20 Years!!!

I have a big problem with the FBI going through such great extents to enforce laws that are in such controversy. I also don't want to wait 30 seconds every time I start a video game I legally own.

Tell the FBI to fuck themselves!

I ain't listening to no fucking alws for those jack-offs.

If I want to copy a CD, I'll do it, and they can't stop me . . . unless they want to say hello to the business end of my aluminum baseball bat.

I was thinking the same thing purfus. I do not want to wait for a delay or 10--20 or more seconds before I can play a game. You've already got the console companies name, the publisher, and the creator of the game, and now this? True the other ones go by fast, usually, but unlike a movie you can't fastforward through a message like that. It'll really aggravate me if I have to see everytime I turn on my newer games.

5 years and a 250k fine. Hmm sounds like it might easier to rob a bank and with less fines. It is almost like the government is being run by The media companies. Oh wait it is. Ebay posting one american government starting bid .99


LOL it will happen one day. The thing that bothers me is that the american public has no clue. No clue on how many billions of dollars get wasted on this Sh*t. The other thing that bothers me is that these companies can claim that it is taking maillons of dollars away from thier bottom line, but than they can go ahead and outsource thier works for cheap. And they wonder why no one can afford thier products.

5 years max!

Didn't the FBI just commit a copyright infringement when they sieged all that network hardware to copy. Oh, wait that's a seizure. I forgot that if you are in the entertainment industry or government and break the law you just call it something different and that makes it okay.

Geez, double standards and semantics.

"The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000."

Hey George, call 'em back! They're investigating now!

If this is their 3rd priority, then they have a lot more file sharers to round up than they do terrorists.

And if this truely is their 3rd priority, then you can all rest assured that the FBI is watching everything you say here.

Including me, when I say "Fuck the FBI."

They must have taken me seriously when I mentioned a week or so ago that there's all kinds of weapons of mass destruction on P2P!! Oh no! Come get us all!

they just want to keep us in the dark and feed use krap, we,ll become a nation of mushrooms!

-off topic-

In article at EFF, they came up with some proposals for P2P so that "music fans can share music freely at a reasonable charge without feeling like criminals."

I wasn't aware that the EFF thinks users of P2P should "feel like criminals." For EFF's information, nobody does feel like one no matter how much they think we should.

Any word on whether said warning will appear on ALL cd's or just cd's of those labels who wish to have them? If the latter, then provided Indies opt out of this, the RIAA just gave me a great seive to use when determining whether something is clean, courtesy of the FBI.

Such a labeling (and lack thereof on Indie music) would make boycotting a lot easier.

When the FBI labelling was first announced a few days ago, I did write to the FBI's Phoenix office and asked whether indies can use the FBI logo under a "NOT" sign to indicate that we don't want no stinkin' batches working for us.

No response so far.

"the FBI allied itself with various US entertainment companies to stop the reported billions of dollars lost to piracy."

Good. Now that the FBI is in the door, maybe they can locate some of the missing things we've been looking for, like manufacturing reports, return figures, agreements between labels, etc.

I bet an audit will show billions of dollars pirated all right, pirated from the consumers by the price-fixing music cartel.

...and the shipping of missing units out the back door, often to foreign countries (I know when I was in Korea there were plenty of industry manufactured "bootlegs" available on the street.)

Shmoo

I will now stop buying video games and as soon as I hit the US of A and get broadband Warez will be my friend.

There's a mighty middle finger for a company trying to say they need my money for overpriced entertainment.

"the FBI allied itself with various US entertainment companies to stop the reported billions of dollars lost to piracy"

Ironic, isn't it. Back in the good ol' days the FBI used to fight organized crime. Now they are promoting it.

Someone has been doing a lot more lobbying than usual here. Not the RIAA, it doesn't do things behind the scenes. MPAA, most likely. Even with the huge money available to them, they would still find it easier to fight the precieved evils of piracy with a little government money behind them.

"The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000."

So, the FBI is going to investigate all the millions of Americans who use p2p? Thank god they won't be squandering precious resources & manpower on finding terrorists, drug dealers, et.al.

I guess little Katie, Kazaa, & a hard drive full of pop tunes is a bigger threat to this nation than Al-Quaeda & a truckload of NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) weapons?

uhh.. the fbi is supposed to be impartial. They are also charged with upholding proper legal definitions.
That penalty only applies to criminal (FOR PROFIT) infringement. Also pircay is used in the wrong context again.
I have sent a letter out to my father who is in the fbi to complain to his superiors about this.

So, the FBI has joined what i dub "THE BIG LIE".

I think this makes them federal PRIVATE POLICE

I SWEAR TO LIVING GOD FUCK THE FBI AND RIAA THEY CAN'T CATCH U.